Introduction to the universal delta model

  • Authors:

  • Gioele Barabucci

  • Affiliations:

  • Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2013 ACM symposium on Document engineering
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

There are currently no shared formalization of the output of diff algorithms, the so called deltas. From a theoretical point of view, without such a formalization it is difficult to compare the output of different algorithms. In more practical terms, the lack of a shared formalization makes it hard to create tools that support more than one diff algorithm. This paper introduces the universal delta model: a formal definition of changes (the pieces of information that records that something has changed), operations (the definitions of the kind of change that happened) and deltas (coherent summaries of what has changed between two documents). The fundamental mechanism that makes the changes as defined in the universal delta model a very expressive tool, is the use of encapsulation relations between changes: changes are not only simple records of what has changed, they can also be combined into more complex changes to express the fact that the algorithm has detected more nuanced kinds of changes. The universal delta model has been applied successfully in various projects that served as an evaluation for the model. In addition to the model itself, this paper briefly describes one of these projects: the measurement of objective qualities of deltas as produced by various diff algorithms.